Yachting term "boat nigger" misunderstood

Definition: "Middle class white girls (usually) who go crewing on a voluntary (usually) basis on larger cruising or racing yachts on their gap year. Occasionally in the hope of meeting a male (usually) crewman from a middle class background and income bracket for likeminded travel, fun and sex

Real Housewives of Auckland star Michelle Blanchard has opened up about a racial slur that was used against her on an upcoming episode.

The comment, which was recorded as the women sailed on a luxury yacht in Australia's Port Douglas, involves Housewives star Julia Sloane referring to fellow housewife Michelle Blanchard as a "boat n.....".

Sloane is pakeha [white] and Blanchard is English with Jamaican ancestry on her mother's side.

After last week's episode, in which Sloane demanded she deserved the best villa bedroom over Blanchard and Kirkpatrick because she was blonde, the incident was hinted at in the "next episode" teaser.

It is understood that, off camera but recorded on a microphone, Sloane said to Kirkpatrick, "Gilda! Don't let Michelle be your boat n*****!", Spinoff reports.

Sloane then said in a reaction interview: "It's an old boating term. I should never have said it."

Blanchard is consoled by Kirkpatrick, who is in tears about the incident herself.

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